[Chris Saper]

Hi Jean,

First a note about the charcoal/white topic. I think what makes your drawing less strong than it could be is the distribution of values, both in placement on the page as well as percentage of total surface area. These are indeed things you will want to resolve before moving on to the painting.

Here, the toned paper is called upon to act as the middle value. There is a lot of dark that isn't really dark, and a somewhat lesser amount of white, that isn't really white. The three values are sort of interwoven across the surface, so that there aren't clearly stated solid areas of value. The Prudon drawing emphasizes a really solid and very light form, where the majority of the modeling information lies. The careful placement of a much smaller amount of very dark areas, which contain no real detail, serves to set up the tonal pattern of the piece. The torso commits to a dominant light value, and just uses tiny dark accents.

The Durer piece, in contrast, commits to a dominant dark value, with proportionately very small amount of white; the lights however, are still grouped in proximity rather than being equally distributed over the surface. As I scroll back to your drawing, I don't feel that it has any clearly committed dominant value.

It's important for you to resolve the value scheme now, because that is what will hold your painting together, much more significantly than color, edges or any of the other elements you will consider over the course of its development.

And now, back to the question at hand....the pose! Personally, I like the pose a great deal, although the mouth is in an awkward position, and if it were my painting, I would revisit that part. The only other comment is that it is unclear to me whether she has glasses perched on her head, or whether that is just the hairstyle, so that would be a point to resolve, too. I think you have done a beautiful job on the drawing, and I very much look forward to seeing the painting itself.

Best wishes,